Wednesday, October 19, 2011

A Project...

So it started with an e-mail to Matt. It's been marinating in my brain for 8+ years. The kitchen linoleum is 20 years old and it showed. I asked Matt about the possibility of tiling - a couple days later, Jeff was driving home with 48 boxes of tile (we far exceeded the trailer limit) Thank you Kimber for helping me pick out the tile - we love it! So here are a couple before and afters:
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Linoleum that I don't miss!
(this was a good section)
The last piece of tile - Matt does incredible work!
Kurt's family life merit badge is now completed.
The worker bees...they did fantastic!
Most of our furniture sat under this tarp for a couple of weeks.
The boys moved all our pantry upstairs. This was our "hording" hall for a week. Definitely couldn't live like this for long!
Matt aka the best tiler/fixer of everything that broke throughout his 2 week job at our home. We are so grateful for his beautiful work and putting up with our craziness!
Jeff - Matt's helper. I got to help a little too.
I can now cut tile and grout!
Thanks to Kristen, Jill and Liz for listening to me complain on our runs and giving me great ideas throughout the project.
Of course you start a project like this and then it multiplies into 50 more. I cleaned, re-stained and polyurethaned all the baseboards and cupboards. Thank you Connie for teaching me how to do this!
I painted everything - thanks Louise for helping me pick out a great wall color and giving fantastic decorating tips!
Jeff hung new ceiling fans...and they don't wobble.
Tony taught us how to strip the table. I re-stained it and the chair tops. Jeff painted everything black - thank heavens for a spray gun and compressor. Thanks to Ken, Tony & Dahls for letting us use their tools and Ken fixing our couch leg too.
Our old screen door was in pretty bad shape (forgot to take a picture). Matt thought we needed a new screen door - so this is called "Matt's door". Jeff did a great job hanging it, and it even closes all the way by itself...come over and you can listen to it click closed:)
Our pantry doors folded and were always in the way so we
put on new closet doors. Had a few staining issues, but Jeff sprayed them black and they look great.
Marilee brought us over delicious dinners because Kurtis told her he was starving and only eating granola bars - ahhhhh not true! What kid wouldn't like going to Wendy's and Chick-fil-A every day? Thanks for the yummy meals Marilee!
Took off the door mini blinds and attached these cool windows with blinds inside. We had a few door knob issues, but Jeff figured it all out and they work beautifully!
Our blinds came a day after my parents arrived. Dad & Jeff
hung all the blinds - Yea! Mom & I went shopping and found a beautiful rug, lamp and a few other "essentials".
Thank you so much Mom & Dad!!!

So the project is close to being done.
A few more things and we will be finished.
Not too bad for a months work!

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Sprint Triathlon

5 am - we love to tri!
Getting everything ready...
Liz - our dear friend and training partner.
Swim complete and ready to bike.
Bike complete and ready to run.
Barry was the competition this year. It was very close and he kicked LeAnn's tail hiney on the bike, but being shorter and lighter helped her pass him on the run. She's going to have to kick it into gear if she wants to beat him next year!
Jeff was better in every category with a total
improvement of 7 minutes! LeAnn was 2 minutes faster.
Feels good to get new personal records~
What a great way to spend the morning! Thanks so much to Trustys, Bunkers, Burgys, Yoders & Donnalynn for cheering us on and taking pictures - that was the icing on the cake:)
Looking forward to the next one...

Monday, August 8, 2011

A New Year

Back to school today. 2 in elementary, 1 in middle and 1 in high school - ahhhhh! The craziness continues around here times 10. We miss summer already, but look forward to a fantastic year.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

A Little Fishy...

We spent the day fishing and it was wonderful!
A little crazy driving there when 3 of the 4 boys were throwing up, but everyone felt great when we arrived:) It did my heart good to catch the first fish (I have no idea what I'm doing, but it brought back fond memories of fishing with my grandpa and I loved it!)
Nick caught fish #2
Brandon caught fish #3
LeAnn caught fish #4
Justin caught fish #5 that slipped out of his hands before we got a picture. Jeff spent the day helping Justin and he is a pro now:)
Kurt took a fly fishing course at scout camp and is doing great with a fly rod, but those trout were not biting flies today.
Brandon fly fishing. Jeff taught B & K how to tie their own flies.

Our Fisherman Daddy!
Thanks for teaching me how to get a worm on a hook.
I can't wait for our next fishing trip!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

All-star

Kurtis loves baseball - he had the opportunity to play
on the all-star team this summer. Way to go Kurt!